The heads of the two NHS bodies which hold the key to the cottage hospital’s future on Thursday told the Cobham News & Mail the Portsmouth Road facility was part of plans for a radical shake–up in health services.

Epsom and St Helier Trust chief executive John de Braux and Alan Kennedy, chief executive of East Elmbridge and Mid Surrey Primary Care Trust, said Cobham Hospital could become one of a number of ‘local care centres’ designed to offer services within the communities they serve.

The two men took part in the launch of a long–term strategy aimed at improving health services in Mid Surrey, Merton and Sutton.

Central to the scheme is the building of a number of smaller community hospitals across the region which will make routine healthcare more accessible to people.

The ‘local care centres’, as they are called, are intended to be run by primary care trusts and provide a range of services, traditionally only available from large general hospitals like Epsom and St Helier.

According to the NHS steering group behind the scheme, each centre is intended to develop around the needs of the surrounding community and might include outpatients, day surgery, minor injuries units, rehabilitation beds and diagnostic services as well as a GP surgery.

Cobham residents have been striving for more than a decade for a community hospital containing such services and raised more than £1 million towards the cost of funding the facility.

A recent meeting of the Friends of Cobham Cottage Hospital heard that progress on the future of the hospital could not be made until existing legal wrangles are resolved.

The friends are currently involved in a dispute over £1.2 million given to Epsom Trust just before its merger with St Helier in 1999.

The money was paid to the trust to help pay for rebuilding the cottage hospital.

However, in March 1999, Epsom Trust sold a 125–year lease on the facility to a private company, leasing back part of the building for use as a hospital.

The friends had not been informed prior to the sale and believe it was contrary to the agreement made when the money was handed over.

Alan Kennedy said he would like to “cut through” the problems at Cobham and find a solution so that the NHS could take advantage of the facility.

However he said the strategy was at an early stage and there would be a period of consultation with the public before more detailed plans were drawn up.

Mr de Braux said that as freeholder of Cobham, Epsom and St Helier Trust was keen to see the cottage hospital included in the plans for local care centres.

“This new plan is mainly about improving local healthcare, bringing services closer to people’s homes,” said Mr de Braux.

“But for patients needing more complex treatment, we must recognise that our current hospitals will no longer be fit for the purpose in ten years time.

“So this is our chance to take a fresh approach, providing care both locally and in new hospital facilities which are properly equipped to look after our sickest patients, following emergencies or major operations.”